Monday, November 7, 2016

TURKEY

Many Turks have welcomed the decision to move the historic Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul back into the context of Islam. But minorities are worried it could be another sign of radicalization across the country.

The face of Istanbul is changing as fast as Turkey itself. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent far-reaching purge, which in its conception has been compared to Nazi methods, moderate and secular voices are increasingly finding themselves marginalized as the ruling AKP continues to push its agenda of political Islam into many aspects of life.

This change and the general Islamist mood across the country have now taken hold of the heart of Istanbul's old town, where the popular tourist site and landmark of the Hagia Sophia is currently undergoing a soft brand of Islamization.

In a history spanning 15 centuries, the massive building first served as a Christian and then as a Muslim place of worship, before finally being converted into a museum. Now, Turkey's powerful ministry of religious affairs (Diyanet) has installed imam Önder Soy as the Hagia Sofia's new prayer leader: For the first time in 81 years, the famous landmark has its own designated imam again.

The square outside Hagia Sophia was the scene of a suicide bomb attack in early 2016

Soy is largely based next door to the historic building, at the Hünkar Kasri site, a former sultan's palace; however, Soy, who is described as a "modern imam," being also an avid kickboxer and karate practitioner, is already reciting the Muslim call to prayer five times daily from this close proximity, using loudspeakers in the Hagia Sophia's minarets.

"They had to appoint someone like me to this important place as there are not only followers of Islam who come here but also followers of Christianity and followers of no particular religion at all," Soy told CNN Türk.

The world-renowned Blue Mosque next door (also known as Sultanahmet) already has the capacity to make its calls to prayer heard beyond the Hagia Sophia. The appointment of an imam there would therefore appear largely to be politically motivated.

Moving Turkey away from its secular tradition

The historic building, which served as the seat of the Greek-Orthodox patriarch from the 6th to the mid-15th century and was then converted into a mosque from 1453 to 1935, was turned into a museum at the personal request of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal, widely known as Atatürk. But Atatürk's vision for Turkey as a secular nation could not be any further removed from Erdogan's outlook.

The interior of the edifice is adorned with both Christian and Islamic style elements

Erdogan panders to his religious base, which is also growing in Turkey's urban areas, traditionally regarded as more secular. Now he is hoping to get support in a referendum for a new Turkish constitution which would give him a blank check to rule the country as he pleases without having to be subject to a parliamentary process.

Many of his followers support him to that end and want Islam to play a greater role in daily life; some have even expressed calls to fully transform the Hagia Sophia into a mosque again.

Political commentator Savci Sayan, himself a fan of President Erdogan, tweeted: "I dream of the day that the president leads millions in the Friday prayers at the Hagia Sophia. And I am praying for this dream to come true."

The building has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985 - but this title does not grant it any sort of protection.

International condemnation

Erdogan's policies toward minorities, especially since the enactment of the state of emergency across the country after the July 15 failed coup, have attracted widespread criticism, with Luxembourg's foreign minister likening Turkish authorities operating under Erdogan's orders to Nazis. The president himself has dismissed such international criticism, saying that he doesn't care if Europe calls him a dictator.

While the government crackdown has mainly affected the country's Kurdish minority as well as followers of the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan has branded his archenemy and accused of being the mastermind behind the coup attempt, other minorities, such as Christians and Jews, also say they feel increasingly insecure in Turkey's present political climate.

Act of provocation?

The timing of the announcement of the imam's appointment may well have been deliberate: He was installed on the same Sunday as Orthodox Christians celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The position is regarded as the highest role in the Orthodox Church.

Bartholomew I asked for the historic building to be treated with more reverence and respect

Austria's Catholic Press Agency (KAP) called the move a "deliberate provocation." Earlier this year, Bartholomew himself asked that Turkey show more respect for the Hagia Sophia, reminding President Erdogan that the edifice had served as a church for nearly a millennium and adding that he also respected Islam as a religion.

Erdogan, however, has ignored all such appeals and congratulated Diyanet on appointing the Hagia Sophia imam.

The majority of the country's newspapers and other media outlets followed suit - but this was perhaps to be expected: Erdogan has made sure in recent months that the majority of opposition media outlets were closed down.

THE BELLE OF THE BOSPORUS

Architectural milestone

In 532, Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the construction of an awe-inspiring church in his residence Constantinople - "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again". Roughly 10,000 workers were involved in the construction work. For amillenium, the Bosporus basilica remained Christendom’s biggest church.

Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.

The Goals of Communism

(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.